"Waiter, There's a Bug in My Drink!"

Russians are buggy about bugs. They hide listening devices in mattresses, un der flowerpots, behind wallpaper. Three years ago, they even bugged the eagle's beak in the Great Seal of the U.S. that hung in the American embassy in Mos cow. It is all part of the espionage game, and looking for hidden mikes is considered high good sport by Americans in Russia.

But last week came word of a new Soviet bug -- a really non-cricket one.

A U.S. military attache met a diplomatic source in a Moscow bar, ordered a martini, then engaged his companion in deep conversation. The waiter brought the drinks ordered -- including an extra martini, which he set on a nearby fireplace mantle. The attache finished his first drink in a few minutes, but then he couldn't locate the waiter to order an other. Thirstily, he picked up the marti ni from the mantle, took a sip, then bit into the olive -- ouch.

That was no olive -- it was an olive-colored, plastic voice transmitter; its "toothpick" was really an antenna. The attache was appalled -- not so much at the device itself, but at its location: "If the damned thing can work under gin," he gasped, "it can work anywhere."

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