Where's Conrad? Has he replaced Waldo?

I obtained the documents that Conrad requested and, as the quest then instructed, I sent them back to his original location in the posession of a mule merc. But Conrad is not in that Sector! No blue question marks, exclamation points, just the merchant $, the militia, & citizens signs. I restarted the game, re-entered the sector, restarted my computer & Steam. He's still MIA. Unable to complete the quest.

Does the merc that starts this quest have to be the one to give them to Conrad? That hasn't been a requirement for all the other quests. So far, when a quest is solved, any merc can complete it by talking to the quest giver.

Anyone have info or similar problem with this? TIA