The cold and moonless night

It was a cool and moonless night with a heavy, cold fog. Yet, a man and a small boy stood on the pier. The small boy struggled to get away, but the man held his arm with a vice-like grip, as he swung a lantern three times. Then, a boat appeared out of the mist.
As it got closer a rope thumped onto the pier. The man grabbed the rope and snugly moored the boat to the pier. A ladder unfurled down the side and the man forced the boy up it, and then followed.
Even though he didn’t know it, the boy had just boarded a slave ship bound for the sweatshops of Malaysia. A sailor nimbly descended the ladder and cast off the ropes. In an instant, the mist had swallowed the ship.