Conrad is a secondary antagonist in Skeleton Key.
Conrad serves as the personal henchman of General Alexei Sarov. He is short and has long hair on one side of his head, but is bald on the other. He has at least thirty metal pins in his body, a metal wire in his jaw and a metal plate in his skull. He has uneven legs and walks with a limp. His face is also lopsided. One of his eyes is permanately bloodshot.The reason for his appearance is that he was once carrying bomb and it exploded while he was still holding it. He was "re-assembled" by a group of Albanian doctors and was considered to be a "scientific miracle". Conrad aids Sarov in his plans and carries out certain tasks for him, such as blowing up the Salesman after Sarov purchases a nuclear bomb from him, in order to cover any tracks. However, whereas Sarov is fond of Alex and is keen to adopt him, Conrad takes a particular dislike to the boy and tries to kill him at one point by feeding him into a crushing machine. Near the end of the novel, Conrad fights Alex near Murmansk but loses. Due to all the metal in his body, he becomes attached to a large electromagnet (used to move Sarov's nuclear bomb) and he slams into it with force, breaking his back. Alex then moves the magnet over the sea and drops Conrad's lifeless body into the water, where he immediately sinks, never to be seen again.