Birthright

Stewart's ( Monkey Shines ) tale of a Neanderthal boy in a modern-day New England town is an also-ran--simply a variation on the popular theme of alien visitors, despite raising issues regarding scientific ethics. On a field trip to a remote corner of Armenia, anthropologist Sam Wendell finds and smuggles out a ``valuable scientific property'': a contemporary survivor of man's prehistoric predecessors. But when Sam dies en route home in an auto accident, his widow, Julia, adopts the lad, whom she calls Adam. Unaware of his origins, she believes him to be an inarticulate boy of about 12, though he has a man's strength and the ``developmental level of a two-year-old.'' But Maxine Fitzgerald, a geneticist and Sam's former mistress, immediately sees there's something more to the boy's strangeness. Ingratiating herself with Julia, she surreptitiously examines Adam while prying into Sam's files for hints to Adam's background. Meanwhile a secretive, sinister quasi-governmental foundation keeps tabs on them all, exploiting Adam as a research subject and callously ignoring the fact that he's a biological time bomb endangering those around him. (Dec.)